Category: 1985

The Cup final was also very important for the supporters of PAOK – there was a good chance for a double. So, they were probably very bitter at the end, but that was the reality: PAOK was not really a great squad. They faced Larissa, the only really improving team this season and thus eager for success. Larissa won 4-1!

Sweet victory!

Larissa with the Cup – now, this was a great moment for true underdog, for PAOK, although rarely winning anything, at least was among the big clubs of Greece – Larissa was lowly, usually concerned with keeping place in the top league and not very successful at that.

The Cup final perhaps showed the limitations of PAOK best – sturdy, but not great. Not especially strong, rather ordinary. A double proved to be too much for the boys.

It looked like a Cinderella story – true, Larissa was rapidly progressing team, but they came out of the blue and their progress did not even bring them at par with the relatively weak leading clubs. It also looked like a victory on the wings of enthusiasm, making the difference against not so strong opponent – an opportunistic victory, a one-time-wonder. Larissa never won anything before. They reached the Cup final the previous year and lost it. It was historic moment for them, it was a victory to be remembered for ever. It was also logical result of improvement – the team reached the Cup final in 1983-84, now their progress continued and the team was getting very close to the leaders, they reached the Cup final again and this time won – experience was added to enthusiasm and perhaps there was a wise decision made before the season to bet on Polish connection. The former Polish national team player Kazimierz Kmiecik, a member of the great 1974 Polish squad, came in 1983. In the summer of 1984 two more Poles arrived – the forward Krzysztof Adamszyk came from Legia (Warszawa) and the coach Andrzej Strejlau from Fram (Denmark). This worked perfectly – Larissa just jump up and won its first trophy. And it looked like the team was going to stay strong – the Poles were too old to be considered valuable by the big clubs, there were no other starry players in the squad, so there was no big danger the teams would be plundered. Keeping the team and improving on it was the the likeliest situation.

First Division. In a nut shell, 5 teams way above the rest of 16-team league, two hopeless outsiders, and Olympiakos having a weak season. 10 of league members hailed from 3 cities – 5 from Athens, 3 from Saloniki, and 2 from Piraeus. Nothing new about that and ultimately the championship was the familiar rivalry between these three cities and their biggest clubs.

Pierikos (Katerini) was last with 12 points.

Aigaleo (Athens) was the second ousider – 15th with 13 points. Both clubs were very weak from the start of the season and their relegation was sure thing, so everybody else had relaxed season.

Panachaiki (Patras) was 14th, but with 21 points – weak or not, they had nothing to worry about during this season.

Doxa (Drama) – 13th with 22 points.

Apollon Kalamarias (Saloniki) – 12th with 24 points.

Apollon (Athens) – 11th with 25 points.

OFI (Iraklion) – 10th with 26 points.

Ethnikos (Piraeus) – 9th with 27 points.

Panionios (Athens) – 8th with 30 points.

Aris (Saloniki) – 7th with 30 points.

AE Larissa – 6th with 35 points. Excellent season for Larissa, although they were not among the leaders.

And above the bulk of the league were 5 teams, relatively equal.

Iraklis (Saloniki) – 5th with 41 points. Good and stable, but even when they were good, it was a team really able to run for the title.

Olympiakos (Piraeus) had slightly weaker than usual season, but still they finished ahead of Iraklis – 4th with 42 points. That was how weak and strong compared objectively. Subjectively, Olympiakos saw this season as a disaster.

AEK (Athens) took 3rd place with 43 points. Yes, they were a bit disappointed, for the title was not in their hands, but they secured a UEFA Cup spot, so it was not so bad.

Panathinaikos (Athens) also finished with 43 points, but they had better goal-difference than AEK and took 2nd place. They scored most goals in the league – 61 – but were unable to win the championship. Thus, the season was seen as a failure. If there is anything to say about them, it would be about a mystery, kept under lid to this very day: there Bulgarian-born goalkeeper Thomas Laftsis. He was clearly with Greek citizenship by now – like his German-born teammate Maik Galakos – for Panathinaikos used as regulars both plus the 2 allowed foreigners, the Yugoslav Zaiec and the Argentine Rocha. Unlike Galakos Laftsis was not able to play for the national team of Greece, because he played for Bulgaria before moving to Greece. But his transfer was and is murky: he was permitted to emigrate to Greece because of his ethnicity. But in the recent years it had been hinted that he was not simply permitted to emigrate, but was sent there with some spying mission. It makes sense, since he was player of Levski-Spartak in Bulgaria, the club belonging to the Police – and the Secret Police naturally had a lot to do with it. Technically, he was a Police officer of Bulgaria. What possible secret mission a football player may perform is almost a ridiculous question, but the Greek career of Laftsis is little known – Laftsis returned to Bulgaria after 1990 and remain there. He almost never talks about his playing days and in general provides little about his Greek years in interviews. He built a business – that is all he says. He may mention playing for Panathinaikos, but hardly ever about playing for his previous club, OFI. He may say occasionally he was a star in Greece – but 1984-85 was the really the only season he was regular of Panathinaikos. Well, that is all and whatever the real story was, one thing is sure – with him between the goalposts Panathinaikos won nothing this season. Not his fault, but hardly a story of success.

PAOK (Saloniki) won the championship after 19 wins, 8 ties, and 3 losses. 54-26 goal-difference and 46 points. Three points more than Panathinaikos and AEK had. Not domineering and perhaps a bit opportunistic victory, due to the relative weakness of Panathinaikos, AEK, and Olympiakos. The squad was hardly superior to the squads of the rivals – PAOK always had Greek stars, but never in the numbers the three big clubs had. Iosifidis, Damanakis, Kostikos, and Dimopoulos were national team players, yet, not the greatest Greek stars at the moment. Compared to the foreigners the competition had, PAOK’s paled – Ivan Jurisic and Rade Paprica were at best second-rate Yugoslavs. Even their coach, the Austrian Walter Skocik was not a well known name. But it was obviously stable combination, which took advantage from the shaky performance of the rivals and came on top. From local point of view it was fantastic season – PAOK won its 2nd title, almost 10 years after winning the first one. Beating the big clubs from Athens and Piraeus was just great – this was even fans of Aris and Iraklis can be proud of, for Saloniki beat hated Athens. Successful underdog is always lovely.

Greece. If not a stagnation, then a plateau – the progress was stalled for awhile. No major scandals and penalties this season – only Second Division Almopos Arideas had 1 point deducted, but the penalty made no difference. The team was relegated, along with three others at the bottom of the final table. The top 2 teams were promoted to First Division. Perhaps 20-team strong Second Division was too big for Greece, but at least it was fairly competitive league. Not very strong, though. May be half of the clubs played top league football previously, but those were small clubs and their fate changed frequently.

AO Trikala finished 14th – safe for now.

Eolikos Mitilinis Lesbos was just above Trikala – 13th.

Athinaikos Vironas, one of the 3 clubs from Athens, playing in the Second Division, managed pretty much as their rivals – 7th with 38 points. A place above Atromitos Peristeri, but slightly below Acharnaikos Menidi, which took the 5th place with 44 points. Entirely outside the race for promotion, Athinaikos, and Acharnaikos did only a bit better – they looked like candidates for promotion, but lost steam and dropped out.

At the end, it was two recently relegated teams climbing to the top:

Panserraikos AO Serres finished 2nd with 49 points – by the end of the season they built 4-point cushion and one of promotion spots was comfortably theirs.

PAS Jiannina – or Giannina, or Ioannina – bested Panserraikos by a point and was the champion of Second Division.

Both PAS and Panserraikos managed a quick return to the top league, hoping to stay there.

Which left the Cup as the only real tournament, as it had been for years already. But even the Cup was becoming the same… the final was a repetition of the previous year, it was becoming just a fair duel between heavily favoured Dynamo (Berlin) and not-favoured Dynamo (Dresden). Head to head, Dresden usually prevailed and they did it once again – 3-2.

It may have been big thorn in the heel for mighty Berliners – no matter how strong, they were unable to win the Cup. Then again… it may have been cleverly organized by their Stasi sponsors: fix the championship, so to be always in their hands, but leave the Cup fair, so the rabble to imagine some revenge. If the rabble wins it. So far, the rabble won the Cup, always. Either Dynamo Berlin was nothing without heavy protection, or the Cup was not really important to them. Take it as you like, but the Cup was the only hope for getting revenge on Stasi and that was something.

Dynamo (Dresden) were the Cup masters and added one more to their trophy room. Beating Berlin was always sweet. The squad was more than good and new stars were emerging – Ulf Kirsten was already a regular. Dynamo (Dresden) was already the only club rivaling Dynamo (Berlin), perhaps the only one keeping some hope they may overcome Berlin one day in the league. One can hope for them, support them, made them moral heroes… but it will be good to remember that the name ‘Dynamo’ is the name of Police teams. One Police team on top or another, no big difference… internal quarrel at best.

First Division. Nothing new here either – the expected outsiders went down, the winner was known in advance, the league was sharply cut into two halves…

First Division was clearly too much for BSG Motor (Suhl) – the newcomers won but a single match and received 92 goals in 26 championship games. 5 points in a year was new low even for such divided league.

BSG Chemie (Leipzig) had much bite than Motor, but they were not cup for top league football either – 13th with 17 points. So familiar… once again relegated, but very likely to come back for a short spell. The vicious circle.

BSG Stahl (Riesa) survived – 12th with 20 points – but it was not because they improved in some way. It was just that there were weaker teams, but it was still temporary escape – soon they will be back in Second Division, for sure.

Same thing for BSG Stahl (Brandenburg) – 11th with 20 points and good for one more season here, but no more than that. Top row from left: Eckart Märzke, Silvio Demuth, Rainer Fliegel, Karsten Heine, Christian Knoop, Holger Döbbel, Andreas Lindner.

Middle row: Trainer Heinz Werner, Frank Jeske, Siegfried Malyska, Jens Pahlke, Michael Schulz, Winfried Kräuter, Fred Krohn, Peter Schoknecht, Christoph Ringk, Co-Trainer Eckhard Düwiger.

Front row :  Mannschaftsleiter Günter Boede, Roland Gumtz, Eberhard Janotta, Hubert Gebhardt, Holger Bahra, Gerhard Kraschina, Thomas Arendt, Physiotherapeut Gerd Meißner.
FC Hansa (Rostock) – 10th with 21 points. Avoiding relegation was their whole ambition and they succeeded.

FC Karl-Marx-Stadt – the usual. 9th with 21 points.

FC Vorwaerts (Frankfurt/Oder) – 8th with 22 points. Their brief revival proved only that it was not a real one. No leaders, not a threat to the established order – they sunk to the lower half of the league and were to stay there.

The crisis of FC Carl Zeiss (Jena) continued – 7th with 25 points. Top row from left: Volker Probst – Jürgen Raab – Thomas Ludwig – Stefan Meixner – Jörg Burow – Uwe Pohl

Middle row: Jürgen Werner(Trainer) – Thomas Schmiecher – Matthias Pittelkow – Heiko Peschke – Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin – Andreas Bielau – Andreas Krause – Gert Brauer – Lothar Kurbjuweit(Trainer)

Sitting: Wolfgang Schilling – Konrad Weise – Karsten Härtel – Perry Bräutigam – Ronald Szepanzki – Robby Zimmermann.

Carl Zeiss was at the border – above them was entirely different group of teams. As always, the league was cut in two separate groups.

FC Rot-Weiss (Erfurt) – 6th with 30 points. Way above the lowly teams bellow, but make no mistake: Rot-Weiss enjoyed strong period, yet, it was nothing more than mid-table team. Even when they were much stronger than most, they were at the bottom of the leading pack. More likely to go down a notch, than climbing up.

1. FC Magdeburg – they lost their edge, but only that. Becoming outsiders was not possible at all – 5th with 31 points.

BSG Wismut (Aue) – the pleasant surprise of the championship. 4th with 32 points. They had to enjoy their good fortune, for it was not going to be repeated – one time wonder they were.

1.FC Lokomotive (Leipzig) – 3rd with 38 points. No disappointment here, but nothing new either – Lokomotive stayed solid and among the best, but not able to come even close to winning a championship. Battle for 2nd place was the most they could do – they had to settle for bronze medals because of worse goal-difference.

SG Dynamo (Dresden) clinched 2nd place, beating Lokomotive on goal-difference. Well, realistically, this was the most they can do no matter what kind of squad they had.

One more title for BFC Dynamo (Berlin). 20 wins, 4 ties. Only 2 lost games. 90-28 goal-difference, 44 points. Dominant, having no rival, just going from one title to the next. It was well known they will win – it was known they will the next year too, everything was well known.

DDR. The reformed Second Division championship kicked in this season – now it was made of two groups of 18 teams each. The winners were directly promoted to the top level and the last three – relegated to Third Division. The second teams of first division clubs were allowed to play here, but unable to move to the top league. They could be relegated down, though – and also promoted from third level to the second. Five such teams played in the new second division, but why they were included is a bit unclear – one can understand automatic inclusion of the leading clubs, but Rot-Weiss (Erfurt) was not among them and Carl Zeiss (Jena) was not strong at the moment. Lokomotive (Leipzig) and 1. FC Magdeburg on the other hand were not included. Anyhow, the new championship started and finished, without producing anything new: the usual bulk of clubs with scary industrial names played minor roles as they did before the championship was reformed. Former First Division members were the only candidates for promotion and, as it was for many years, the leaders were not challenged by anybody.

1. FC Union (Berlin) easily won Group A after 21 wins, 8 ties, and 5 losses. They scored 81 goals – the most in the whole Second Division, allowing 29 in their net. 50 points gave then a solid 5 point-lead at the end – they had no rival. Once again Union was going up.

BSG Energie (Cottbus), a possible candidate for promotion, finished 4th – a good 8 points behind Union. Top row from left: Horst Krautzig, Hans-Dieter Paulo, Detlef Irrgang, Andreas Wolf, Dietmar Drabow.

Third row: Ralf Lempke, Udo Stimpel, Maik Pohland, Lars Petzold, Jens Melzig, Reinhard Noack.

Second row: Hagen Wellschmidt, Roland Balck, Andreas Leuthäuser, Reimund Städler.

Front row: Karsten Dietrich, Ingolf Krause, Ralf Wilken.

Group B. A mirror image of Group A – one unchallenged leader and nothing else.

HFC Chemie (Halle), a possible candidate for promotion before the season, did nothing much and they were 2nd in the final table. Distant second, 5 points behind the winners.

BSG Sachsenring (Zwickau) dominated the championship, winning it with 54 points. 24 wins, 6 ties, 4 losses, 73-27 goal-difference and the best defensive record this season. Just like Union (Berlin), Sachsenring was simply returning to First Division.

No change of status quo at all – if Fenerbahce and Besiktas competed for the title, Galatasaray and Trabzonspor competed for the Cup, the leading 4 clubs dominating all tournaments. And just as the championships was tough and dramatic battle, the Cup final was as well. The opponents were well matched, none giving up a inch. A lot was at stake – the trophy itself, naturally, but also the last Turkish European spot – there were only three, so one team inevitably was out, and also a chance for both ambitious teams to win a trophy, to save the season. Galatasaray won the first leg 2-1, but away, prevailing in the hostile Trabzon. The second leg was scoreless and the Cup was theirs.

Trabzonspor was left emptyhanded this season, which was not exactly great for this fine squad. Standing from left: Necati Özçağlayan, Şenol Güneş, Tuncay, Şenol Ustaömer, Hasan Vezir, Güngör Şahinkaya. First row: Turgay Semercioğlu, Kemal Serdar, Osman Denizci, Lemi Çelik, Hasan Şengün.

Yes, a good number of Turkish stars were playing for Trabzon, but times were changing – having foreign talent was becoming a must. May be that was the little difference giving the edge to Istanbul-based rivals. May be Trabzonspor had to change its approach – competing with the rich and mighty Istanbul clubs was not easy anyway.

A club like Galatasaray cannot be really toothless even when having so-so season. Winning the Cup was fine compensation for the weak season and the heads were proudly up again. It was not an easy victory, but a victory it was and at least for the fans the drama of the final is enjoyable. It was also satisfying finish for Abramczik, who was not to play for Galatasaray any more. On the other hand, it was getting tiring to see the same clubs winning every year. Well, just tell that to Galatasaray fans…

First Division. Naturally, it was here where the improvement of Turkish football was clearly seen. Professional stability of most clubs for sure and along with that bigger impact of foreign players. Turkey was repeating Greece of the 1970s – more clubs were getting foreign players and the recruits were of higher quality. Foreigners were imported for a long time and even by Second Division clubs – from the end of the 1950s – but it had been sporadic affair and in the past mostly old players came. Now it was steady practice and more clubs were involved – not all, to be sure, but more than before. And the players were younger and better. Mostly Yugoslavians, but increasingly German players as well. A big country somewhat demands bigger league, especially when the sport is popular and the clubs could get steady financing. Already the top league grew to 18 teams and was going to 19 the next year – reasons were perhaps mixed: on one hand large league could satisfy local ambitions and on the other hand clumsy Second Division needs some real award for the winners. Thus, three teams were going up after the end of the season from second level, but only 2 were relegated. In a nut shell, this championship had one outsider; all newcomers survived and remained for the next championship; 11 clubs were largely concerned with survival, Galatasaray was something like decline; there were two outstanding and domineering leaders, which made fascinating race for the title, won at the end not by points, but by goal-difference. High drama.

Boluspor was the hopeless outsider – last with 17 points, most of which came from ties, for the team won only 3 games.

Antalyaspor was rather unfortunate – they finished with 28 points, which placed them 17th and were the second relegated team. Not worse than more than half the league, but going down.

Denizlispor was lucky – 16th with 29 points. Lucky, because only 2 teams were relegated, instead of three, as it used to be.

Altay (Izmir), just coming back from Second Division exile, finished 15th with 30 points. So far – so good, they were perhaps not aiming for more than just clinging in the top league for the moment.

Malatyapor – 14th with 31 points. Like Altay, a newcomer and quite modest, so it was fine ending.

Bursaspor – 13th with 31 points. A weak season, surely.

Zonguldakspor – avoiding relegation was pretty much their traditional aim and the boys managed to succeed: 12th with 31 points.

Genclerbirligi – technically, the second important club of Ankara, but never strong enough. The lower half of the table was their normal location and no change this season either – 11th with 31 points. Avoiding relegation was all they were happy with.

Eskisehirspor performed best of the newcomers this year – 10th with 32 points. But it was still the same modest goal all newcomers had: to survive. Trying to come back from a low period and still rather weak.

Orduspor generally had one aim – to maintain a place in the top league. This they achieved and thanks to 33 points, finished quite well – 9th.

Sariyer (Istanbul) – 8th with 33 points. Final table counts… escaping relegation was on their minds during the season. At the end, though – solid mid-table position! Good season! Next would be better. Here is a taste of the new policies of Turkish clubs: two Yugoslavs in the squad – Hodzic, 1st standing from left, and Celebic, 3rd standing from left. Not first-rate players, but solid professionals.

Kocaelispor – 7th with 34 points. Similar to Sariyer – once out of trouble, everything was fine.

Sakaryaspor – 6th with 34 points. Strong season, one of their best so far. Temporary ascend or not, they had the right to boast: equal to Galatasaray!

What is great season for one is disaster for other – Galatasaray was 5th, ahead of modest Sakaryaspor only on goal-difference. A tragedy! And that with former national team players of West Germany and Yugoslavia and Turkish national team regulars! Standing from left: Rasit, Erdal, Guneyt, Ismail, Yusuf, Semih. Crouching: Simovic, Abramczik, Fatih, Adnan, Bulent Alkilic.

Ankaragucu – seemingly, going up and up, after their recent return from Second Division. May be joining the leading 4 clubs, making it five? Only future could tell, but they were 4th with 38 points. Good reason to believe in them at the moment.

Trabzonspor – running strong and that with seemingly different approach, than their rivals employed: they put faith on Turkish players. No foreigners here and it worked fine. 3rd with 42 points.

Besiktas – wonderful, yet, unhappy season. Aimed for the title, played outstanding season, and lost on goal-difference. They had only one rival and far above the rest of the league, including Galatasaray and Trabzonspor, but no luck at the end. 19 wins, 12 ties, 3 losses, 50 points. 49-19 made their goal-difference +30. Not bad? Not good enough… ahead of them was a team with +40. The Yugoslavs Kovacevic and Secerbegovic were lower level than the foreigners in Galatasaray, but blended better and contributed more.

Fenerbahce clinched their 11th title thanks to superior goal-difference. Strong, no doubt, but they faced formidable rival and the victory was dramatic. They had their own Yugoslavs to help – pretty much of the same level of those playing for Besiktas. Pesic and Repcic were somewhat second-tier Yugoslav stars, but perhaps a bit stronger professionals than Kovacevic and Secerbegovic. More dangerous strikers for sure. With them, Fenerbahce scored plenty of goals – 65, the most in the league, and good 16 more than Besiktas. The defense was also up to the task and the team lost only twice this season. This clinched the title.

One more look of the 1984-85 Turkish champions.

Turkey. Second Division. To a point, development of the sport could be seen better through second level rather than the first one: it is convulsive road. One demand is putting more professional clubs on the stage. The other is reduction, for desires and reality rarely match. So, the Turkish Second Division was no exception: there were many changes of the format and the number of the teams. At the moment the Second Division had three groups of 16 teams each, somewhat geographically organized. The winners were promoted, the last two teams – relegated. Simple, on the surface, but it was difficult task because of uneven economic development of country’s regions – traditionally, most clubs were situated on the Mediterranean coast and Istanbul. The far East lagged behind. The European part of the country, west of Istanbul, also lacked economic power. No matter what, a smallish club from Istanbul or Izmir was in much better shape than a club from, say, Van. But to have Second Division made of mostly Istanbul-based clubs was not serving development, so geography had to be wider. Wider geography, weaker clubs… plus the transportation difficulties. Constant struggle. In view of organizing Third Division, some regularity and order had to exist – another struggle. At least this season was orderly – no team folded because of financial difficulties. As for the rest… it depends: good thing football was passionately accepted around the country, but too many second level clubs were nothing to brag about.

Group A.

Adana Demirspor ended 9th with 29 points. Here is prime example of geographic relativity of the second level structure: Adana had 2 teams in the Second Division, but no derby, for they played in different groups.

There was no real competitive edge in this group – Rizespor dominated the championship, finishing 8 points ahead of 2nd placed Diyarbakirspor. They lost only 2 games and won 18 of the 30 championship games. Standing from left: C.Alptekin (coach), S.Yenigün, E.Kolçak, E.Tombul, H.Kürkçü, İ.Şenol Bayraktar, H.Fehmi Durmuş

First row: M.Hacıömeroğlu, M.Bak,T.Kural, M.Yıldız, H.İlik.

Rizespor was going up for another try in the top league and good for them. The picture also shows a typical problematic element of development: grass was mostly absent cover of most stadiums.

Group B. May be not stronger than Group A, but at least more competitive – 4 teams tried to come on top, 3 of them former First Division members, one quite famous, now having hard times.

Adanaspor played here and finished outside the leading group – 5th with 33 points.

At the bottom was a team hardly heard of – one of the many clubs making the numbers rather than anything else. Kutahyaspor finished 15th and was relegated. No lack of trying – with 1 point more, they would have been out of trouble – but going down at the end.

But the top of the table was more interesting and important.

Tarsus Idman Yurdu Erkutspor finished 4th with 37 points.

Goztepe (Izmir) – 3rd with 38 points. Down on their luck for quite some time, unfortunately.

Konyaspor – 2nd with 38 points. Unable to climb back to the top league this season.

Kayserispor prevailed at the end with 40 points. Well done and going back to First Division.

Group C. One team dominated the championship of the biggest group – it had 17 teams. However, apart from the winners, there were no recent top league members. Instead, here were some clubs with steady and solid Second Division presence – PTT and Vefa Simtel.

As for the others… well, Suleymaniye Sirkeci was seemingly playing on decent grass, but they finished 16th and moved down to Third Division.

Vefa Simtel were perhaps the archetype second level club – once upon a time they played in the top division, but second level was really their environment. Solid and stable for constant mid-table position. Also one of the few clubs in the country clearly associated with their sponsor – it was part of the club’s name. This year – 8th with 31 points.

Galata did well – by their own measures. 5th with 36 points. Not to be confused with Galatasaray – this is Istanbul-based club, but small one. One of the many clubs hidden in the shadows of the Big Three.

Karsiyaka finished 2nd with 42 points. Well done, but promotion was not in the books – they merely did better than others, without challenging the leader even for a moment. Interesting sponsor they had – one may think the Danish beer-producing giant would sponsor top-league club.

Samsunspor dominated the championship, winning it with 52 points. The best record in all three groups . As the other two winners, they were merely returning to top flight after relegation.

Well, that were the newly promoted, going to First Division – Samsunspor, Rizespor, and Kayserispor. All former top league members. After the regular season a mini-tournament was played between the champions – it had interesting prize: not only the winner will be the champion of the whole Second Division, but it will represent Turkey in the Balkan Coup. True, the tournament lost its luster, as every regional competition by mid-1980s, but it was wise decision by the Turkish Federation – lower level clubs had to have some international exposure, if improvement was to take place. Given the results of the season, Samsunspor would be seen as the likeliest winner, but Kayserispor won the final stage.

The Cup final opposed Widzew (Lodz) to GKS Katowice. Drama was big, quality – doubtful. Scoreless final, going into penalty shoot-out, in which Widzew prevailed 3-1. May be not a great final, but important in perspective.

GKS Katowice was unfortunate, but perhaps this final fueled so far modest club for good years ahead. A team on ascend, still in early stage.

Widzew (Lodz) won a trophy this year, keeping up its prominence, which started roughly in 1980. From left: Włodzimierz Smolarek, Henryk Bolesta, Roman Wójcicki, Kazimierz Przybyś, Marek Podsiadło, Mirosław Myśliński, Tadeusz Światek, Jerzy Leszczyk, Dariusz Dziekanowski, Marek Dziuba, Krzysztof Kamiński. Already experienced squad and seemingly managing to avoid decline by inclusion of new good players – Boniek was gone, but Smolarek became the leader; Mlynarczik went to play in Portugal, but good replacement was recruited immediately – Henryk Bolesta. Half of the squad were regulars in the national team. Dariusz Dziekanowski was very promising youngster. Seemingly, Widzew had wise policy, but how long the club would be able to keep up with departures was also a valid question. The pressures were great – Boniek was goen, Mlynarczik was gone, it was clear that Smolarek, Wojcicki, Dzuiba would be gone soon and then what? So, enjoy the moment – and what a moment it was! Widzew won the Cup for the first time! That was then… enjoy the moment now: so far, this is the only Cup Widzew won. Singular significance, thus, memorable.